DEVOTION FOR THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2017
Read Psalm 33:12-22
Waiting Because God Loves Us
Did God still love His people? Was He still present with them? The
young priest-in-training Ezekiel might have asked such questions after the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and took him and other Jews into exile. God answered with a resounding yes! First, He gave Ezekiel a vision of Himself, then He called him to be His prophet (see Ezekiel 1–2). Jerusalem or no, temple or no, exile or no, God loved His people and remained present with them.
God’s love is always faithful and never falters, no matter what the
circumstances or our own feelings. Spiritual waiting rests on this absolutely secure foundation (v. 22). Therefore, waiting is not about duty or obligation, any more than God’s love is. God loves us of His own sovereign free will, not because of any external requirement. As yesterday’s reading indicated, He is His own guarantor.
Psalm 33 describes how blessed it is to be the people of God (v. 12). He is above all and sees all, not only outward actions but also inward thoughts, for He created all. To belong to the Lord is
thus a tremendous source of hope and encouragement, far superior to human sources of confidence such as physical strength or military power (vv. 13–19).
Appropriate and worshipful responses to this truth are given in verses 20 through 22. We should wait, hope, rejoice, and trust in God. At the foundation of it all is His “unfailing love,” a phrase repeated twice (vv. 18, 22). Part of waiting on the Lord, then, is both knowing that we are deeply and steadfastly loved by our Creator and loving Him in return. We may even be facing life-threatening dangers, but His eyes are always on us, and we’re safe in His matchless hands.
APPLY THE WORD
Waiting is often hard, but that’s no reason not to be glad and give thanks! The psalmist saw waiting as a joyful state: “In him our hearts rejoice” (v. 21). We can rejoice even in the face of something like famine because our “soul anchor,” and “our help and our shield” holds us safe and secure. Think of a way to rejoice in hope today!
Today in the Word is a production of Moody Global Ministries
